Source: Anadolu Agency / Getty
Music publishers filed a massive multi-million dollar lawsuit against social media platform Twitter on Wednesday (June 14).
CNN Business reports that publishers seek more than $250 million in damages. They claim the platform “breeds massive copyright infringement that harms music creators.”
The lawsuit claims that Twitter has allowed users to share copyrighted songs without a license for years. It also claims that Twitter’s misconduct has intensified since Elon Musk bought the company last fall and slashed staff.
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The complaint cites over 1,700 songs whose copyright has allegedly been infringed, including Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You” and Mark Ronson & Bruno Mars’ “Uptown Funk.”
The National Music Publishers’ Association claims that Twitter’s permissiveness around users sharing music, along with its promotion of tweets with copyrighted music, helped fuel Twitter’s growth.
“The availability of videos with music, including copies of Publishers’ musical compositions, furthers Twitter’s financial interests both because it drives user engagement, and thus advertising revenue, and because Twitter does not pay fees to license musical compositions,” the complaint said. “Providing free, unlicensed music gives the Twitter platform an unfair advantage over competing platforms, such as TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, and others.”
The music publishers said that Twitter’s competitors are paying all licensing fees for the ability to use copyrighted music.
At press time, Twitter didn’t respond to comment.
Twitter Sued For $250M For Alleged Music Copyright Infringement was originally published on foxync.com
